I am a 10th grade, straight A student at a pretty competitive high school in North Carolina. I have one hobby (chess) that I do A LOT and am very passionate about. I am a chess national master, have won state scholastic championships and have tied for 3rd-4th and 2nd-4th in National championships, and am continuing to improve. I am also the team captain of my school’s chess team, have a good job teaching chess in a local elementary school and privately, and am the co president of a volunteer chess club as well as doing significant other chess related volunteering. The only problem is that maintaining that hobby at level requires almost complete dedication, I tried debate last year but due to schedule conflicts with the grueling schedule weekly mostly adult chess tournaments I compete in and my responsibilities for my school chess club was unable to really participate in tournaments for debate. Should I ease up on chess and make it more of a priority to participate in other activities or continue trying to get to the next level in chess, for example trying to qualify to represent the US in international tournaments?
It depends on your goals, but I agree that being a tad more well rounded could be good. Debate is a particularly time consuming activity. Is there anything less time consuming that interests you? Normally do NOT recommend this, but are there any clubs (foreign language, writing club, something like that) that meets infrequently that you could go without s big time commitment? But generally I say that if chess is your passion, go as far as you can with it.
Are you doing anything for exercise? Here is another thought. One of my kids club fenced in high school. She found a club that was low key where she could fence a couple time a week, and the coaches didn’t care if she competed or not. It was also okay if she had to miss club sometimes for other activities. Fencing is a sport that requires mental agility, sometime called “physical chess”. 
It would be good for your health, and give you another activity if you could find a club like that.
I dont really know, I am passionate about social studies in general, which is why I picked debate in the first place . you are right that it is particularly time consuming though. Do you know whether Model UN is equally time consuming generally? I could also try Kiva club (a microloan group) I guess as a volunteer thing at my school, it doesnt require as big of a commitment.
Kivaclub sounds good. I don’t know about Model UN, not at my kids’ school. But someone else may.
If you love chess and have achieved a high level of accomplishment there, then continue that route. There is the myth of the ‘well-rounded student’ that some people ascribe to but most of the top schools make the point that they expect to see a high level of achievement in ECs as well as academics. It’s not possible generally to do that in multiple areas concurrently. And doing a little in a lot of areas (3 clubs, 2 team, an some volunteering for example) is a poor trade both for your own personal growth as well as for your application. If you have one main passion, that’s terrific. It makes you interesting and unique. If you want to try some different things, that’s great too - that’s what high school is for. You tried debate and it didn’t work out for you. No problem. You are welcome to try something else, but I wouldn’t do it at the expense of chess if that’s what you care about.
You definitely should NOT cut back on chess. That is your passion and your talent. @N’s Mom is correct.
That said, pick up a few other things for fun. Just do things that genuinely interest you, and that don’t conflict with your chess. If clubs are not flexible enough, do something on your own.
What are some examples of things that you do on your own Renaissancedad?
People who are interested in poetry or writing write, or blog. You can attend writing workshops from time to time. Getting published in a literary journal helps.
You can participate in sports without having to be on a school team, with a rigid schedule. @intparent mentioned fencing, which could be complementary training to your chess. Rock climbing and parkour are good activities which are less competitive.
You can take up a musical instrument, just for fun, or study composition. You can get involved in photography and create your own portfolio, as time allows. You can do art (and if you’re good, you can submit to places like Scholastic Art & Writing). There are tons of examples. Pick something that genuinely turns you on, and that complements your chess. You don’t need to pick 10 things. 1 or 2 at most will do fine.
The message you are sending is that chess is your priority (along with academics), but that you aren’t one-dimensional. There’s a big difference. I was a serious musician in high school and devoted 30+ hours a week for it, so I was careful to limit other ECs to things that didn’t interfere, but I still had plenty of other interests.
OK, maybe I should make this a new thread, but this issue has developed over time with me, so I wanted to keep it in the same thread. I followed your advice in this thread, and started participating in another extracurricular (history Olympiad), which I have achieved some success in (qualified for international history bee, top five in state, highest score in state on US history exam) and genuinely enjoy, and am trying to start a history Olympiad club at my school for next year. My question now would be: would this be enough (just chess and history Olympiad) or would I still need to participate in other extracurriculars? In part because I have started doing other things, my chess accomplishments have leveled off slightly, and I am still concerned about having enough time to do everything, especially if I start participating in more activities. Also, thank you to the earlier posters, you really helped me a lot.
Colleges want a well rounded class more than a well rounded student. How will you contribute to the college? What unique strengths and interests will you bring? I have read many times in many places that colleges would rather see deep engagement in a few areas than more shallow engagement in a long list of activities. You made it big on a national level. Hopefully that will impress! Don’t decrease your commitment to what you love just to play an admissions game. Do what you love. Top sports players or movie actors probably also have limited breadth-- but they get into schools!
Thank you for the advice The Grey King! That is certainly useful.
If chess is your passion and you are good at it, then by all means continue on that path. I have heard a number of adcoms say the same thing that @TheGreyKing noted above. Colleges want to put together a well roudned class – that will include some well rounded individuals and some people with particular passions in one area (be it chess, music, athletics, writing poetry etc.).
That said, if you want to branch out a bit, there are often community service things that are very short in duration (ex. work at a soup kitchen a few nights, do a habitat build one day) that might help to broaden you on a personal level if you are interested.
Alright, Thank you!